Data storage multinational Western Digital has launched its new WD Green and Blue range of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) in South Africa for business and private users.

The drives can be used to boost the performance of computer equipment, says Western Digital Storage Technology South Africa sales manager Kalvin Subbadu.

The local market is demanding sizable storage devices, and the new range of SSDs complement the company’s primary range of hard drives for computers and workstations, with the added advantage of improving speed and increasing reliability, he says.

“The Green drives provide good performance and value for money and are well suited for everyday use. They are typically used to enhance the lifecycle and increase the performance of laptop or desktop computers.”

The Green SSDs are available in 120 GB and 240 GB sizes, with either size available in standard 7 mm or M.2 2280 form factors (for use in laptops and notebooks), says Subbadu.

The SSDs are capable of ultralow power draw to allow for longer periods between battery charges and help to support mobile working.

The drives provide sequential read-write speeds of up to 540 MB/s and 465 MB/s, as well as endurance of 40 TBW, or Terabytes written – a measure of the limit before memory wear occurs – for the 120 GB drives and 80 TBW for the 240 GB drives.

“Our SSDs have near-maximum speed for serial advanced technology attachment, or Sata, drives, along with best-in-class endurance and mean time to failure – the length of time a device is expected to last in operation and an indicator of reliability,” Subbadu states.

These drives have passed through rigorous performance testing at the WD Fit Lab, which means they are certified to boost system performance, allow for quick boot times and deliver increased program responsiveness, he adds.

The Blue drives range is aimed at digital content creators, high-performance computing users, computing enthusiasts and gamers, as these users require high-performance drives to meet their demand for speed.

“The drives provide almost-instant-on responsiveness, durability, low power consumption and ultramobile form factors, and these SSDs are well suited for high-speed storage needs and performance demands,” he adds.

The Blue SSDs are available in 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB storage sizes, and come in 7 mm or M.2 2280 form factors.

The Blue drives boast read-write speeds of 540 MB/s and 500 MB/s for the 250 GB drive and 545 MB/s and 525 MB/s for the 500 GB and 1TB drives, while endurance is 100 TBW for the 250 GB drives, the 200 TBW for the 500 GB drives and 400 TBW for the 1 TB drives.